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Cultivation Theory

Television today is one of the most common items in every household. Almost everybody watches television every day. We learn from, it enjoy it, and even change our schedules to watch it. Television is used to try and change our views or feelings on particular subjects, and even can change the way we look at the world. The media has an impact on us all whether we realize it or not, and cultivation theory attempts to explain this impact. In my paper I am going to explain what cultivation theory is and applies it to two television shows which are Family Guy and South Park.
Family guy consist of a mom name Louis Griffin and a dad name Peter Griffin, two teenagers who are Chris and Megan, cynical dog who is smarter than everyone else name Brian, and a mutant baby who makes numerous attempts to eradicate his parents and siblings name Stewie. This television episode is trying to show you how a family lives in everyday life and they relate most of the events in this how to real life issues that is going on in society today. South Park on the other hand, South Park is an animated series featuring four foul-mouthed 3rd graders, Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman. The show is set in the Colorado town of South Park where weird things keep happening. Every time one turns the television on there is some form of violence on any program one watches. This is where cultivation theory comes into play.
Cultivation theory was developed by George Gerbner. This theory focuses on how people’s attitudes are impacted by the media and on how what one thinks more than what one does (Theories of Violence in the Media 2008).
Cultivation theory focuses solely on the amount of television viewed and does not allow for differences in the ways in which viewers interpret television realities. (Cultivation Theory 2008,). Cultivation Theory also, states that the more a person is exposed to a message provided by the media, the more likely that person is to believe the message is real. Cultivation...